Archive for the ‘Presents’ tag
Only Three Sleeps Left!
So I started the Twelve Days of Christmas by questioning the whole commercialisation, religious factor and the massive amount of consumerism that engulfs the holiday.
Nine days later, a guest post from a fellow cynic about how it was the silly season and the festivities should be embraced; I’ve ticked off the shopping list, wrapped the presents and sent the cards off. So who would have thought, even I’ve started to warm to the idea of Christmas this year!
We should forget altogether about religion, consumerism, buying too much junk and over indulging.
Saying You’ve Been Good All Year = Presents
I’ve been shown this week (by a five year old) that Christmas is about a few things;
- Continuously reminding everyone how many sleeps there are until Christmas
- Knowing the fridge is FULL of chocolate
- Very sneakily peeling off the sticky tape of one end of the wrapped present, having a peak, folding the wrapping back over and positioning that present under the tree so that people will be none the wiser
- Eating ALL of the days in the chocolate advent calendar in one sitting
- Sitting on Santa’s lap at every shopping centre to tell him how good you’ve been and to tell him how many horses you want
Asking If They’ve Been Good All Year = Obedience
Children aside, Christmas isn’t purely about religion or consumerism; I’ve found it’s handy for;
- Being able to bribe children into being good, or else…
- Being able to unload some of your un-opened junk from last year (hello re-gifting)
- Realising that you’re the undisputed champion of present wrapping
- Getting some cool* new stuff that you had no idea about (*to be confirmed)
- STILL receiving Christmas presents from your family pets
And let’s face it, you can probably vouch for everything in the first list too…
Wish you were still young enough to REALLY enjoy Christmas? Let me know if there’s anything I missed from either lists!
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The Twelve Days of Crispness…
On the First Day of Crispness
No not the painful Christmas carol, my version of the twelve days of Christmas. Crispness you ask? Well I’ve concluded that the general public cares more about how fresh their Christmas Day salad is (Australia) than what the Christmas holiday actually represents.
So unless you’re Christian, Catholic, or have any other affiliation with ‘him’ then what are you dishing out presents for? I overheard a lady in the shops the other day, talking to someone on her cell phone and stressing out about whether she was getting the right present, if it was going to be what the recipient wanted, would they like it, was it the right colour. Too much stress!
My Twelve Days of Christmas
I’m going to attempt to write something everyday for the next twelve days with the overall theme focused on you, leading your own free world. The next twelve days you’re going to get a few free world updates, some results from my online income experiments that you can try yourself, how you can travel the world tomorrow and a look at social media.
Back to Crispness. I was recently invited to a Friday night Shabbat (Jewish dinner) by a friend. We washed up, didn’t speak, broke bread, drank wine, had three kosher courses, didn’t have milk in our tea and then they sang some Hebrew prayers. Everyone was well dressed, the conversation was polite and the table setting was rather fancy. I was impressed by the table setting and exclaimed “This is pretty flash, you must really turn it on for Christmas dinner!” when I realised to my own stupidity, that Jewish folk don’t celebrate Christmas as they’re not particularly down with the whole Jesus caper.
So when people frown upon religion, think its stupid, over-rated or not for them, they still ‘celebrate’ Christ’s Mass. That makes sense?
The Good
Christmas is good for a few things, religious or not. It gives working slaves a reason to take a break from the drudgery and it also encourages time for friends and family to get together.
The Christmas holiday shouldn’t be about trying to please everyone, running around like crazy trying to be at every family event under the sun, having to blow your budget on presents, over indulgence or consumerism.
Retail outlets prey on Christmas cheer. Think of buzzwords like ‘Stocking Fillers’ (useless crap), ‘Christmas Essentials’ (more useless crap) and ‘Last Minute Panic’ (hurry to buy our useless crap!). Retail outlets start the Christmas buzz earlier and earlier every year, this year we had it start in October and now we’re waiting for the Boxing Day/January sales because if we weren’t dumb enough to spend all our money on presents for Christmas now we can make up for it in the sales!
That’s enough Christmas cheer for the first day of the countdown. Stay Tuned.
Anything you’d like to read about in the Twelve Days of Crispness? Leave a comment or to receive all twelve days in your inbox sign up here.
